The Little Book of the End of the World (6 page)

  The Jewish people will be returned to the land of Israel.

  A Messiah – specifically from the House of David – will lead the Jewish people.

  A new age of global peace will be ushered in, when all will accept and share the Jewish faith.

  The dead will be resurrected to share in the new world.

This Jewish vision of the Endtimes gives us some new ways of looking at the End of the World: no longer are we just afraid of the world around us and the whims of angry gods, but we are also given a list of qualities to adhere to, a way of behaving which we should follow in order to avoid meeting our end when the Apocalypse comes.

As the Abrahamic religions each grew in size, thoughts about the End of the World became contentious and exclusive: with multiple faiths and interpretations developing around the same books, there were suddenly different interpretations of the End of the World, with a promise that only some of us would or could be saved, and all the rest would be damned.

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THE MESSIAH AND THE ANTICHRIST

While the notion that a single person can singlehandedly avert the End of the World is laughable, human culture has a fascination with heroic characters, from the gods of classical religions to the superheroes of popular culture in the twentieth century.

As a people, we’re ready to embrace heroes and leaders, especially if they can save us from some awful fate – we’re also prepared to destroy them if they endanger us.

Heroes aren’t confined to religious texts but their role in the End of the World is an important one, whether it’s Thor who singlehandedly slays dragons and snakes or Noah who builds the ark on which humanity can escape the flood. The hero doesn’t always have to fight battles or lead an army, but he is nonetheless a force to be reckoned with, one who will protect and unite humanity.

This hero is a recurring part of the theories and thoughts about the Apocalypse, and for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we refer to them as the Messiah. The arrival of the Messiah is an important part of all of these religions, with most religions awaiting his arrival as the culmination of their school of beliefs. With their origins long before a time of gender equality, most of these religions have been dominated by males for centuries, and the Messiah – and God – are usually discussed in masculine terms.

For modern Christians, the Messiah is synonymous with the figure of Jesus Christ, who was born approximately 2,000 years ago and was hailed as the Messiah foreseen by the Jewish faith.

Christianity grew around acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah: his teachings were added to the Old Testament, forming a new religious text that that became the Bible. These new chapters, the New Testament, discuss the life of Jesus and his followers, alongside the early days of the Christian religion; the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were written by Jesus’ own followers and specifically record his life, death and resurrection.

Jesus fulfils some of the expectations around the Messiah, but not all of them. He was born to the House of David and there are many passages in the Bible that discuss how he was anointed with oil. The word messiah actually derives from
moshiach
, which literally means ‘anointed’ and was used to describe any leader who had been anointed with holy oil, whether a priest, king or other wise man.

The details surrounding Jesus’ life, as recorded in the Gospels, focus on the fact that Jesus was not seen as the Messiah of the Jewish faith, ultimately leading to his death on the cross and with him rising from the dead three days later. Christians look on this rejection as a struggle that Jesus had to go through, realising that the Messiah would not be accepted by all people until he had experienced trials and tribulations that affirmed his faith.

The Jewish Messiah was also expected to fulfil a number of other tasks, namely with the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, the return of all Jews to Israel and the start of an era of world peace that would unite all of humanity; the Jewish rejection of Jesus focuses on these acts, realising that Jesus cannot be the Messiah while these events have not yet occurred.

Jesus’ death and resurrection provides much of the imagery used by Christian belief: the cross has become the most obvious representation of Christian faith, a symbol that embodies both love and suffering. However, both the cross and Jesus’ death mean nothing without his later resurrection.

In the resurrection, Jesus hints at just one element of the Jewish End of the World that has since become a focal point for the Endtimes: the resurrection of the dead. By a triumphant return from the dead, Jesus proves himself to have mastery over death, a mastery that he promises to share amongst the faithful.

Christians believe that, after his return from the dead, Jesus continued to preach before ultimately rising into Heaven to join God, promising that he would return as part of the End of Days. This should not be treated as another death: Christians believe that Jesus is still alive and that his promised return will, in fact, be seen as him descending from Heaven.

This Second Coming has since been linked to the End of the World and has become an important part of Christian eschatology. As beliefs have grown and developed, different Churches have adopted different attitudes towards the Second Coming: some look forward to it as an event to be celebrated, while others fear its imminent approach. Some even believe that the Second Coming, or
parousia
, has already occurred.

Regardless, Christians believe that the Second Coming is one of the first events to herald the Apocalypse.

JUDAISM

Because the Jewish faith does not recognise Jesus as the Messiah, there are no specific references to the Second Coming as a sign of the Endtimes: once the Messiah appears it will, in fact, be the first coming. However, by claiming to be the Messiah, Jesus Christ fulfilled a different role, that of a false messiah who both led humanity astray and tested the faith and conviction of the faithful.

There are, however, some commenters and philosophers who try to reconcile Judaism and Christianity by suggesting that after his Second Coming, Jesus Christ will fulfil the various prophecies and roles of the Messiah, proving himself to have been the Jewish Messiah all along.

CHRISTIANITY

With the Second Coming forming such an important part of the Christian faith, it should come as no surprise that there have been many different theories about how, when and why this will happen.

The Second Coming has taken a number of forms over the last 2,000 years and has commonly reflected the political climates of any given time. Some believe that Jesus will be born again in conditions that echo his first birth; others believe that the Second Coming will be a dramatic affair with loud noises and lights in the sky.

There are also different suggestions as to what role Jesus will play during this Second Coming, and again, most of these depend on the politics of the time and the location of the Church. During his original time on Earth, Jesus was hailed as a wise man and teacher, but Jesus may return as a warrior, ready to fight the battles that will accompany the End of Days.

Even the depictions of Jesus as a warrior differ, with some Churches suggesting that Jesus will use divine powers and abilities to show his power and might to overcome adversity, while others imply that Jesus will don a suit of armour and lead the charge at the head of a Christian army.

All of these interpretations agree that Jesus’ Second Coming will be at a time to save humanity from a great threat, whether that threat is created by mankind itself, or whether it comes from an external source. After all, if Jesus is to lead mankind in a battle, he needs a force to fight against.

ISLAM

The Islamic faith has been subject to a lot of misinformation: the origins that it shares with Judaism and Christianity are often forgotten in favour of politics and scaremongering, turning Islam into a terrifying alternative that opposes Christianity. It’s a situation that has led to wars and acts of violence around the world for hundreds of years, violence that is still seen today.

In reality, Islam has close ties to Christianity and Judaism, with many locations and prayers important to all three faiths. The Islamic holy book, the Quran, builds upon the teachings of the Jewish and Christian faiths, adding the teachings of Muhammad as written in the sixth century. Saints and prophets are common to all three faiths: although Jesus is not at the heart of Islam, as in Christianity, he continues to be a key figure with an important role to play in both the religion and the salvation of mankind.

Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but they do believe he was the Messiah and was sent to teach humanity how to better follow God’s teachings. The circumstances of Jesus’ life remain the same as in the Christian Bible. However, certain Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified at the end of his life but rather that one of Jesus’ disciples posed as him in order to save Jesus.

For Muslims, Jesus fulfils the role of a prophet, sent to prepare the world for the coming of the ‘Mahdi’, the redeemer and saviour: when Mahdi arrives, it is Jesus who will call attention to him and acknowledge him as the saviour. As such, Jesus fulfils a role roughly equivalent to John the Baptist in the Christian faith.